What is BlogPsychology?

Hey, hi, hello.

You’re probably a week away from your final exam and desperately searching for a psychology-related website that will make it easy to get that A (or A*, depending on how demanding your parents are). Well, there’s no way I can guarantee you an A (or happy parents) but what I can do is help you out with understanding some stuff. Okay, I can’t really promise you that either but hey, you’re here now, so let’s just carry on!

I’m a 21-year-old undergraduate student of psychology. I’m married, I work at/with a school, I love cats, and I am terrible at introductions, among other things. If there is something else about me that you have the urge to know for some inexplicable reason, go ahead and ask.

So, after surviving my A-levels, I was left with a pile of notes that my OCD prevented me from giving away. I thought, “Hey, I have so much free time and so little social life, I should start a WordPress blog!” but then I chickened out and, obviously, my next thought was, “I should make a blog-website-hybrid about CIE psychology!” because that’s, like, so much more interesting than updates about me.

And here it is: a little something to help you out.

If you need any extra support or if you have any suggestions, or if you just want to praise me for all the hard work I put into thi- no? Okay, well, just send in a comment. Also feel free to ask for any education-related advice and kindly disregard the fact that I have no formal counselling/education/psychology degrees whatsoever.

Maryam

AUGUST 2016 UPDATE: You may have noticed that I’ve not been around lately – lots of questions left unanswered and e-mails without responses! I feel super bad for not being able to help you out as much but hey, hey, hey… I have a valid excuse (for once)… BABY ALERT. Once I’ve been able to achieve a balanced mama-lyf (or mastered the skill of typing with a baby dangling from my chest), I will do my best to catch up on everything here. If you do have any urgent requests or deadlines or if you’re just having a bit of an emotional student breakdown, just let me know! As always, thank you all for your patience!

FEBRUARY 2017 UPDATE: You may have noticed that I’ve STILL not been around as much! Baby is almost 6-months-old (mashAllah) and I still don’t know where time goes! I still can’t promise all my time, of course, but I am able to finally allocate a little more time to you guys so PLEASE: if you have an unanswered question, feel free to send it in again and I’ll hopefully get back to you. The summer-time exams are coming up so don’t leave your work til the last minute! Looking forward to interacting with you all and remember, you can also contact me on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks once again for your patience!

OCTOBER 2017 UPDATE: Hello everyone! I’ve been on an extended break for quite some time but am now temporarily available for Tuition Classes and study help. Also, if you’ve sent me an email that I haven’t replied to but you’d still like some help, then please send me another email and I’ll get back to you ASAP! Thanks again for your patience. Good luck to everyone who is dealing with those pesky exams! XXX

HI, i studied from your blog and i got an A in AS psychology, in both components. Just wanted you to know that the time you invest in this site is never wasted, Allah zaroor aapko iska ajar de ga. Thanks again and i hope you continue with it!

Love your work!
I find it admirable that you take the time to not only update the material but also you answer question from people.
Really. You’re doing a great job! These notes really help! 😀
God Bless you! 😀 😀

not all super heroes wear capes… YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER. i swear i studied nothing from my book or notes and in the last 2 weeks of my CIE I memorized each and every word of your blog and i managed to get a pretty decent grade. God bless you ❤

I just started homeschooling, and I had been freaking out about preparing on my own.
Your blog is amazing – thank you so much for making it. I love that you took the time to create a free resource like this!

Aw, thank you for the kind words. I’m really glad that you’ve been finding this website useful – although I do encourage you to use a variety of resources so that you know all the information is up-to-date and detailed enough.

Good luck with your studies and let me know if there’s any way I can help you along!

Pls help me .
Should i use the word ” I” in the redesigning
Bcause its my suggestion right ??
Pls plsss
Still u didnt answer me concerning redesigning the maan et al using experiment ?but its already experiment right?

Hi maryam!
I wanted to ask you something, you have mentioned somewhere that you are doing bsc in psychologyy online from a university, can you please tell me how one can apply for that and is it easy and beneficial to study online? I got done with my alevels and now want to pursue psychology as my career but here in Pak (karachi) there are hardly any unis offering this degree. I do have applied abroad for psychhology through UCAS, for applying online is it the same procedure or what? as i cant find anything regarding that on ucas curently.

please let me know and and suggest me something on this.

thanks!
Sidra xx

p.s during my as and a2 your blog has been so helpful you have no idea! your a total life save in terms pf alevel psychology! 🙂

Yes, I am studying BSc Psychology (Hons) online with the University of Derby. They run a fantastic distance learning programme and the best part is that their psychology degree is accredited by the British Psychological Society, so the degree is just as accepted and established as an on-campus UK degree.

The application procedure is very straightforward and not particularly difficult because this degree is for all kinds of students – even those who have not studied in decades or those who don’t have “typical” qualifications. Visit http://www.derby.ac.uk/online/ to find out more about their psychology degree, the modules it involves, the fees, and so on.

Honestly speaking, I am in my last year and I thank God every day that I found this option! I’m someone who needs flexibility and that is what this degree gives me. Also, the on-campus UK fees are atrocious and I can’t afford them at all. This degree is only one third of the fee for the on-campus equivalent. Another advantage is that this degree is only 3 years long (although you can extend it if you want to) whereas a psychology degree in Pakistan takes 4 years in total.

I studied psychology at a Pakistan university for a few months and the difference is straight-up; I didn’t enjoy the experience, unfortunately, and the modules seemed so irrelevant and random. The Derby degree is much more interesting and relevant, in my opinion. The BPS accreditation is proof of that, in fact!

Still, studying online is a real challenge and you really have to motivate yourself every single day because you are the one who controls your schedule, your study plan, everything. It can be pretty tough!

Let me know if you have any other questions – I’m happy to answer anything else that you’re wondering about. Also, thank you for the kind words! I’m really glad that the website has been helpful for you.

hi Maryam,
thank you so much for this informations, i really needed to know about this.
ill just go through their website and see the application process and if i dont get anything ill ask you.
thankyou once again, you indeed are very sweet and helpful mashallah.
god bless you.
love sidra.

Hello. I am going to be teaching the AS and A level course. I am a little unsure about the syllabus. For the AS level, all 20 studies have to be covered by the teacher and for the A level, only 2 out of the 5 specialist option must be selected and taught?

Ooh, well you’ve got a fun job to do – but also a challenging one! Will this be your first time teaching psychology?

In AS, students must be taught all 20 core studies. For A2, students need to study 2 specialist options. The examiners strongly recommend never studying more than 2 – many students think they’ll have a better chance at scoring marks in the exam but, in reality, studying 2 in depth is a much more effective strategy.

Hi, can I have some notes of paper 3, A2. I lack of resources. I want notes for psychology and education, psychology and abnormality. You can send it to my email: karenchew_21@hotmail.com
Thank you so much 🙂

All the notes I have are on this website and I don’t e-mail individual notes out to students, so I’m sorry about that. There’s a whole section on Abnormality here anyway. As for Education, you can use the Internet to find relevant information.

Hey i am an A2 psychology student and i would really appreciate if you can please send me the link to the cie example answers. I need to be sure of my answers, its content and length and i believe example answers would be of use.
Also this is one helpful resource,thank you so much
God bless you!:)
xx

Hi, i love your blog thank you for existing!
I have some questions. I’m in A2 studying abnormal and organisational psych and i wanted to know:
1. How much detail do we have to write in section B part A (what have psychologists discovered about so and so)
2. In organisational psych, how would you do section B part b?? How would you evaluate an answer? Also if possible could you please give a paragraph as an example?

1. The question is worth 8 marks. You need to have a good range of detail so the best thing to do is cover the points in the syllabus (e.g. for Schizophrenia, you could begin by discussing the definition, then types, then explanations, and so on…) with studies and evidence to support the points you make. I recommend taking a look at the CIE Example Answers booklet for an idea of how much content is expected.

2. You evaluate using the issues and debates learnt in AS. The evaluation points you choose depend on the topics. I don’t give example answers out to non-tuition students but again, you can check the CIE Example Answers booklet for an idea of how evaluation is made. Ideally, you should evaluate using a minimum of 3 issues (they usually mention a 4th issue in the question itself).

There’s also an information sheet about these questions on the Worksheets page.

Thankgod AS psychology is done (went great, Alhamdulillah), time to focus on A2 (IT WEIGHS SO MUCH ON MY ALEVEL GRADE, ITS SCARY, plus business the same day). Any tips for Paper 3? Im doing Psychology & Health, Psychology & Organisations & i need to rock this paper to get a good grade (In Sha Allah)

I’m so happy to hear that your papers have gone well! And yes, InshaAllah Paper 3 will be the cherry on the cake for this exam session.

For Paper 3, I just recommend practising ALL the essays for the 8-mark Describe and 12-mark Evaluation questions. You already know the possible questions so you should have pre-written answers ready to apply in the exam. Other than that, make sure you’ve revised the content itself before the exams. You never which which theory or study will come up for 2-4 marks!

Was just wondering if someone could just provide me the basic ideas on which i could build my answer upon for the following alternative studies:
Using questionnaire to investigate lying as Mann’s study alternative
A field experiment alternative to Held & Hein’s Study
A field experiment alternative to Langlois’s Study

My P2 exam is in the day after tomorrow.. but, i haven’t studied a thing! Can you give me a list of links (from your blog) from which I can prepare for it? Can you please make it in a order? Thank you..
P.S. You are a lifesaver.. I did good on my P1 exams by reading studies from this blog.. Thanks a lot!

There is an Alternative Studies worksheet in the Resources/Worksheets tab. Please take a look at that. If you have any specific questions, just let me know. You can also go through the Your Questions tab as the issue of alternative studies has been discussed here many times before.

Can u answer me little questions
1) what are autistic behaviours?
2)whether theyre better empathisers or systamisers?
3)how are false memories formed?
4)to what extent will people go to be obedient?
5)Why does environment play a part in de individualization and emasculation?
Plz

I can help you answer them
1- there are bascially three autistic behaviour types , you can says , and there called the traid of impairments . However this is uncessary for us really , all we need to know is that they lack a developed theory of mind . And that is to see your self in others place and how they feel , such as to be able to identify the emotional state of others .
2-the autistics are better systemizers ! And very bad emapthisers !
3- False memories are formed when the suggestion becomes part of the real memory . Its like a little detailed thing …. What we basically need to know is the procedural or conclusions of the study .
4-there is no fixed rate or percentage that people will go up to being obedient evry time . But according to Milgrams study 65% of the participnats went up to show obedience to 450V
5- enviroment plays a role in the deindividuation and emasculation as the situation or enviroment is “what leads “to these behaviours . The uniforms and the opppressive enviroment lead to these behaviours . All of the sudden people didnot start to feel deinviduated nor emasculated from something within themselves .

Hey Maryam.
I feel more comfortable answering the questions that are of more weight at first. I asked my teachers if i could do that and most said yea and some said no.
Is it feasible to do the question that we like at first or should we answer in sequence?

I m giving p3 after two weeks and I have habit of completing Section B first. section C second then Section A. I get more confident once the section with more marks is completed. Is it ok if i do in that way?

I personally think that’s fine! Especially if it works for you – it hasn’t negatively impacted your marks, has it?

Although I would not recommend doing that for the AS exam, I think A2 is a lot more flexible in terms of its sections – they’re all different and so it doesn’t matter if you follow a different order as long as you’re still completing the paper on time and completing all the sections!

So yes, to put it simply: you should be completely fine with that order 🙂

Hey! Maryam
I just went through the answers of previous candidates and i found that candidates mentioned dates along with the name of the researcher. Is it necessary to do that? will i be scoring the same score as they do even if don’t write those dates?

If you’re referring to AS, you don’t have to mention the dates with studies because it doesn’t affect your marks.

If you’re referring to A2, it would be great if you mentioned dates with studies because it is the correct way to reference, HOWEVER… this won’t actually affect your marks so it’s okay if you miss them out or if you forget. Still, it really does “look better” when you have the name and date so try to reference correctly whenever you can.

But yes, it’s not something to really worry about. In fact, it’s not even too difficult to remember dates as you’re not dealing with dozens and dozens of studies – most of them are repeated in A2.

Maryam, hi! I’m freaking out after reading one of your replies that say that you need research evidence for something like working conditions. I only have Reason(2000) and Riggio and Greenberg and Baron under my belt , and pretty much just little else for organizational psychology. I know it’s very late to be asking this but I actually asked my Psych teacher and she said there was no need to research any additional topics. To make everything much much worse, the actual exam is also on my birthday. Yay, me:(. If I could contact you on Facebook it would really really help since I’m having a MINI HEART ATTACK RIGHT now. Please help:(. Thank you !:)

You sound breathless! Don’t worry, it’s not something that will take you much time to do. Just send me a message on Facebook to discuss this in more detail – I’m right here to help out. No need to have a heart attack, I promise it’s all actually super straightforward!

Just drop me a message as soon as you can and we’ll work through it.

For anyone else reading this: anecdotal answers without evidence and support from studies WILL limit your marks! Please make sure you don’t make this mistake.

Assalamoualaikum, Maryam,
If there’s a question to evaluate one of the studies in terms of nature and nurture debate, and for eg I chose Bandura’s study, so first should I start it with a little introduction? And secondly, we’ve to write all the evidences that support nature and nurture side of the debate present in the study, right, so at the end are we suppose to write the advantages and disadvantages of this particular debate?

Honestly, Introductions and Conclusions are rarely needed BUT they are excellent ways to start and end your answer – as long as you don’t spend too long on them or write something pointless. For the question on nature vs nurture, your introduction could simply be a one-line explanation of what is meant by the nature vs nurture debate.

If the question is “Evaluate Bandura’s study in terms of the nature and nurture debate” then you have to discuss which aspects of the study are related to nature and which aspects are related to nurture. If the question specifically says “Evaluate the CONTRIBUTIONS of this study to the n-n debate” then you have to describe and evaluate how it fits in and what knowledge it adds to this debate.

You’re not supposed to write the advantages and disadvantages of nature vs nurture because it is a debate, not a theory or method. At the end, you could just conclude (again, in no more than one line) which side of the debate was supported “more” by Bandura’s study or you could summarise the main point of your answer.

It’s really important to state the exact question here because one word in the question could make all the difference in what you should be writing.

Guysss. Here is the teacher that helped me to fall in love with psychology – something for which I will be forever grateful.

Thank you for the kindness, Ma’am. You’re one of the few teachers whose passion and commitment truly left its mark. May Allah bless you right back and allow you to prosper as the fantastic teacher that you are!

Q. Design an alternative way to investigate social roles using observational method and describe how it could be conducted.
My qs. is whether we can investigate any social role or do we have to investigate prisoners and guards role.
(This question is from zimbardo prison simulation study)

This question does not specify which social roles you are supposed to investigate so no, you do not have to investigate the role of guards and prisoners like Zimbardo. You can change the social roles 🙂

The main thing you’d need to do is change the sample to one participant and then conduct a detailed analysis on them regarding false memories. I’ve added an information sheet about alternative studies in the Resources: Worksheets section so feel free to use that to help you out! Let me know if you need more specific help.

What was the aim of the study? To investigate the creation of false memories from altered/suggested information. You can use interviews/diary-writing to collect memories from the person and then, through discussions, attempt to implant a memory or changes in a memory. It still involves some manipulation because that’s the core point of Loftus & Pickrell’s experiment. You just have to do it within a case study’s context.